#Robert Smirke

[hermit-seeking-hermit]

With all that talk about balancing evil forces, it sounds like Robert Smirke found a new calling

#tmagp #tmagp spoilers #robert smirke #it be hilarious if someone found this while scrolling for the historical smirks #the magnus protocol #tmagp 13

[99thpercentile]

given what Lena said about balance, my new theory is that the OIAR was created by Robert Smirke, and he’s possibly still around the way Jonah Magnus was.

#and if he is he’s either 1. Lena or 2. the guy with the “ministerial anus” that Colin’s gonna floss #The Magnus Protocol #tmagp #tmagp theories #Robert Smirke #Lena Kelley #tmagp spoilers #original

[clairebearsparkles]

I felt like the fears in this style would be cute as hell, and I was right

#the magnus archives #the magnus archive fanart #the magnus institute #the magnus pod #tma #tma art #smirkes 14 #smirke's fourteen #robert smirke #tw trypophobia #trypophobia #tw arachnophobia #arachnophobia #little miss #little miss sunshine #roger hargreaves #clairebear art

[dcartcorner]

Commission for @chrisis-averted! Based on a couple of frames from PIERRE DE MAERE - Mercredi (between 0:36 and 0:42).

#tma #the magnus archives #fanart #commission #mordechai lukas #barnabas bennett #robert smirke #simon fairchild #maxwell rayner #jonah magnus

[myexhaustionissoftblue]

I actually really want the Fear Categories™ to be different in the Magnus Protocol's world.

Like, yeah different names being the most popular would be cool and all but I mean like. Actually divided different. Not into Smirke's Fourteen. Like people have divided the Fears into a main six or there's like 37.

Or, even better, how many Fears there are isn't universally agreed on.

Some people say there's ten, and they serve the manipulating, knowledgeable one. Some people say there's 50, and they serve the one that drowns, which is different from the choking or buried alive or large ocean ones. Some believe each Power is a spectrum, so the Vast and Buried are one thing, the Dark and the Eye are one, etc. Some people try to force them into preconceived categories, like the Buried is Earth, Air is that part of the Vast, Water is another part of the Vast, Fire is the Desolation, and then try to shove the rest into those divisions too.

Because Smirke's Fourteen is supposed to be kinda arbitrary right? People kinda just adopted it and it became widespread. It doesn't have to be like that. You could have avatars that can create shadows and suffocate you. Avatars that are Hunt, Slaughter, Flesh and Desolation combined. The ability to burn you, and to choke you, but only with smoke. Someone who's specifically serving the fear of electricity. A cult that just has One True God, whose power is creating fear in many forms, serving the Entities as a singular being, the whole colour wheel. The possibilities and combinations are endless!

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #the entities #tmagp theory #the magnus archives #tma #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen

[its-your-mind]

*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

#tma #tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp meta #tmagp analysis #the entities #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen #mind write a meta post that doesn’t turn into a fucking essay challenge #I literally thought about citing my episode sources here but decided that would get too FUCKING long. #anyway I’m pulling mostly from Gerry’s statement (111) and #and the Big Elias Group Confrontation (92) #and Annabelle’s statement (147) #and then finale - 196 / 197 / 200 #there are other little lines that I grabbed - tbh feel free to ask about anything I’ve said bc I feel like I’m ready to defend a thesis #I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a few weeks since the desire thing started going around #I have an obsession with Themes as they relate to Worldbuilding and now I have subjected you all to it as well #I am serious tho if anyone wants me to pull the specific parts I’m talking about (whether cuz you have Questions or you wanna ref them too) #lmk #my hyperfocus on silly media brain might as well come in useful somehow #aight peace ✌️

[disacurveball]

Ideal TMA Listening Order

#The Ideal listening order + nightmare blunt rotation #I hope Jimmy Magma dies #L + ratio + all your bitches are dead #TMA #the Magnus archives #Jonah Magnus #regency harem #Jonathan Fanshawe #Barnabas Bennett #Albrecht von Closen #Robert Smirke

[murderandcoffee]

#my money is on salesa #tma #the magnus archives #magpod #tma poll #simon fairchild #peter lukas #jonah magnus #elias bouchard #jurgen leitner #maxwell rayner #mikaele salesa #robert smirke #barnabas bennett #trevor herbert #adelard dekker #mordechai lukas #hezekiah wakely #bs.txt

[grifters-rockininthe-bone]

Smirke's Fourteen l. I made 4 of these, my BF (edit: he's @dongofhealing) the other 10. They look way better irl but I felt like you guys could appreciate it anyway.

Edit: I'm so pissed you can't see the lightning in the vast one so here's a close up.

#the magnus archives #tma #tma podcast #the magnus archives podcast #tmagp #it looks so cool dude #fourteen fears #robert smirke #handmade

[shatterdome-underscore]

Also don't let *gestures to everything* distract you from the return of the evil architecture.

And if we're discussing evil architecture, that might lead to some references to Robert Smirke again, who designed, amongst other things, the prison and panopticon the original universe Magnus Institute was built on top of. He was also the guy who categorized the list of fourteen fears, that Jon didn't officially know how to officially name until a certain Gerry explained it to him. And since this universe's Gerry was just introduced, and has another link to the Magnus Institute, it's worth keeping in mind

#tmagp 8 #tmagp spoilers #tmagp #the magnus protocol #the magnus protocol spoilers #this was supposed to just be the first bit but then i realized i was onto something #tma #the magnus archives #tmagp theory #gerry keay #gerard keay #jonathan sims #robert smirke #also robert Smirke was a real ass dude who existed in actual life

[crechurculture]

Y’know the Jurgen Leitner rant is kinda Gerry Keays slogan?

What if Tim had a rant but for Robert Smirke

Robert Smirke rant

I would love to see someone make a Robert Smirk Rant

#the magnus archives #tma #gerry keay #tim stoker #jurgen leitner #robert smirke

[thehermitavatar]

I love the idea that Robert Smirke had fourteen friends to represent the Fears. That would make him the fifteenth, the extinction, and honestly, that makes a lot of sense regarding who he was as a character.

Trying to control and balance everything to the point that it becomes destructive and makes everything worse.

Also, based on the timeline, that means that Hezekiah Wakely could have been part of his group.

#robert smirke #hezekiah wakely #the extinction #tma regency era #tma #the magnus archives #the magnus pod #magpod #tma podcast #tma rambles

[wormconsumer]

Based off a post I saw with the idea that Robert Smirke had fourteen friends, each falling too/representing a different entity, with Smirke himself being the Extinction.

To get the obvious ones out of the way: Jonah Magnus as the Eye, Mordechai Lukas as the Lonely, Maxwell Rayner as the Dark, and George Gilbert Scott as the Buried; these ones are all canon. Not directly canon but a pretty reasonable assumption is Simon Fairchild as the Vast; we know Simon had Maxwell Rayner help him with his Awful Deep ritual in 1853, which was only a few years before Smirke died, and Smirke hung out with Rayner a ton, so it makes sense for Simon to be part of the group (though by a different name; he only started going by “Simon Fairchild” in the 1930s). Another fairly reasonable assumption, in my opinion, is John Franklin for the Hunt. Franklin is canonically a Hunt avatar in The Magnus Archives, his real-life timeline overlaps with Smirke and the rest, and Rayner was canonically interested in his expedition, which was probably because he wanted to use Franklin’s knowledge of arctic exploration for his ritual, but could also imply they knew each other, and therefore, Smirke’s gang.

For the Corruption, my first thought was John Amherst, but he only became an avatar during the Second Boer War, which was about half a century after Smirke’s time. Instead, John Snow is a better fit. He was an English physician who lived during the same time as Smirke, and he had something going on; his descendant Neil Thompson has a syringe that belonged to Snow that had Corruption properties, so Snow fits. For the Slaughter, we could go with Charles Fleming. We know he was in China from at least the beginning of the First Opium War in 1839, and Smirke and Jonah and the rest were up and active on their supernatural studies since at least the 1810s, so it’s theoretical Fleming could have hung out with them, even though he didn’t become touched by the Slaughter until he went to China. Maybe he came back later, though he was in China at least until 1862. Alternatively, William Hall, the actual captain of the Nemesis, could be an option, his lifetime overlaps pretty well with Smirke’s, though there is no evidence he interacted with the Slaughter besides his interactions with Fleming and the Nemesis. Still, he was probably a bit more high-society that Fleming, so I kind of prefer him. Finally, for the more reasonable ones, we have Joey Grimaldi for the Stranger. Grimaldi’s timeline overlaps with Smirke’s, and we know he was affected by the Stranger even before he was turned into Nikola Orsinov. The reason I’m choosing Grimaldi instead of Gregor Orsinov or Nikolai Denikin is that we know for sure he was in England while Smirke was, unlike the other two.

Now for the more out-there guesses. For the Flesh, there are a few options. One is Eustace Wick, the Lutheran priest-turned-cannibal, who did live at the same time as Smirke, but he became an avatar in 1832, died in 1845, and has no evidence that he’d even been to England, considering he’s American. The other options would be Benjamin Carlisle, Benjamin’s unnamed wife, or possibly some other relative or descendant of theirs. I find this one the more likely choice, because Jonathan Sims specifically wonders how Benjamin Carlisle’s wife was able to give her statement to the Magnus Institute, considering she starved to death in a cave on the Oregon Trail in 1845, as well as the fact that an apparent descendant of her, Toby Carlisle, is living in England by the 21st Century and has enough of a connection with the Flesh to be pretty severely affected by the failure of the Last Feast ritual. The unnamed Mrs. Carlisle being the Flesh representative does mean she presumably gave in and cannibalized her husband, and the timeline only gives her about a decade to have hung out with the rest before Smirke’s death, but I think that fits, considering what Smirke said about just coming up with theories about the Flesh in his statement.

The Spiral has similarly not a lot to go on. I would just say the Distortion, seeing as it’s an immortal manifestation of the Spiral itself. We know that Ivo Lenshik’s father was tormented by the Distortion in a human form, and apparently Lenshik’s great-uncle did too, implying that the Distortion did assume a humanoid form sometimes, before it was forced to by the failure of the Great Twisting ritual. Plus, Jonah Magnus clearly knows who the Distortion is, which yes, he could have learned at literally any point from the past two hundred years, but seeing as we’ve got nothing else, I’ll choose to believe. For the Web, the only older avatars of the Web we’re aware of would be the historical owners of the house at Hill Top Road. We don’t know who owned it during Smirke’s time; the closest we have are the unnamed blackmailer who died during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, and Walter Fielding, who died in 1923. Walter’s son and grandson both owned the house for about thirty years before dying, so with the same amount of time applied, Walter couldn’t be our Web avatar. Honestly, the answer might just have to be “whichever Web avatar was owning the house at Hill Top Road during the first half of the 19th Century.”

For the Desolation, we have even less. Diego Molina founded the Cult of the Lightless Flame at some point prior to World War II, but we have no idea when, and it couldn’t have been that long, considering what Eugene Vanderstock says about the immortality of Desolation avatars having some kind of limit. The same is true of the End. The only known End avatar who was alive during Smirke’s time was Nathaniel Thorp, who was a Death at the time, and didn’t become human again until 1970. It’s unlikely that Deaths got breaks to socialize.

So, in summary, we know for sure about:

* Jonah Magnus — The Eye

* Mordechai Lukas — The Lonely

* Maxwell Rayner — The Dark

* George Gilbert Scott — The Buried

We can make some reasonable assumptions about:

* Simon Fairchild — The Vast

* John Franklin — The Hunt

We can make educated guesses about:

* John Snow — The Corruption

* William Hall — The Slaughter

* Joey Grimaldi — The Stranger

We can make complete guesses about:

* Mrs. Carlisle — The Flesh

* The Distortion — The Spiral

* Owner of the house at Hill Top Road — The Web

And we have nothing for:

* The Desolation

* The End

If anyone has ideas or things I missed, let me know.

#tma #tmagp #the magnus archives #magpod #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen #jonah magnus #simon fairchild #maxwell rayner

[catboy-draws]

Do not forget to take your cats outside

#tma #jonah magnus #robert smirke #the magnus archives #magpod #do you understand the vision?

[spiral-man]

My self indulgent list of Entities and what I think my connection to them would be, let’s go:

The Eye-I believe I could be a good avatar of the Eye because I’m super nosy, and have always been told I ask to many questions and am to curious and also I’m a pretty open book myself.

The Spiral-If I had to Pick an Entity I think I’d be most likely to serve it would be the Spiral. I have a lot of mental health issues and I have a hard time figuring out what’s real and what’s fake within my perception, Also I’m Pansexual and Pangender and I have ADHD so….

The Flesh-Think I could definitely be at least marked by The Flesh due to a history of $elf Harm (getting better!) and my fondness for NBC Hannibal.

The Lonely-Depression and Anxiety make me prime real-estate for the lonely and I have a bad tendency of dwelling in my own misery at times and finding comfort in that which is what this entity feeds on.

The Slaughter-I’ve got some anger issues and have a bit of a violent tendency at times (working on it).

The Hunt-Used to (still do) love games like tag and hide and seek, I really loved the adrenaline rush those games give you, especially in the woods or something.

The Stranger-I have a bit of a hard time feeling human, I feel like I’m doing it wrong most of the time, like I’m just ever so slightly off compared to everyone else, like I’m just pretending.

The Web-Manipulative parents need I say more.

The Dark-Always loved the dark, find it very comforting.

The End-I’ve never been scared of death, I’ve had some past suicidal issues and now I’m currently studying to be a funeral director/embalmer.

The Desolation-My family has a history of Arson in the sense that one of my grandmas siblings almost burnt their house down because they liked to play with matches, my grandmas son did burn a playground down because he liked to play with matches and my grandmas granddaughter (me, hi) also has almost burnt her house down (multiple times) due to enjoying playing with matches.

The Corruption-Probably my worst fear, when I was younger I loved bugs but these day they make me so uncomfortable, thinking about them makes me itch, and similar idea with rot in general I just hate it, this fear would have a easy time feeding on me.

The Buried-Similar to the dark, I actually do not mind super confined spaces and in fact find them sort of comforting at times.

The Vast-I used to really love to climb trees but I could never get to high up because I was scared of how unsteady it felt, in general I like climbing shit to be up high but if it feels unstable I feel like I’m about to pass out.

the Exctinction-Lived through a pandemic and constantly being informed about different new events that could end the world.

If you read all this, hot damn I love you wow thank you so much haha, this was purely self indulgent as ive seen other people do it and I find the fears so interesting.

#tma #the magnus archives #the magnus pod #the 14 fears #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen #the eye #the corruption #the dark #the desolation #the end #the lonely #the vast #the spiral #the slaughter #the hunt #the flesh #the extinction #the web #the buried #the stranger #the magnus protocol #jonathan sims #tmagp #martin blackwood

[salad-storm]

Robert smirke: It is telling, that of those I have brought into my confidence, it is only you and I who have continued this far without falling to one power or another, despite all my instruction and work. This is, of course, assuming you have not taken the path of the Eye that I know has called you, called us both for so long.

Jonah, about to become the eyes most special little guy:

#tma #the magnus archives #stormy in here #robert smirke #jonah magnus